Method oe porting pipe balls



Sept. '4, 1923. l,467,166

L. W. JONES METHOD OF FORMING PIPEl BALLS Filed Sept. 28 1921 better,

Patented Sept.4 4, 1923.

UNITED kNr lriciez. t

METHOD 0E EonMriic-:Q rirE BALLS..

Application 1aed september 26,1921.

T 0 all whom it may concer/n.:

Be it known that I, LEEWELLYN W. JONES, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Vynnewood, in the .county of Mont-y gomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement' in Methods of Forming Pipe Balls; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to pipe-ballsandpthe method of forming same. A

These pipe-balls are employed in connection with the manufacture of lapweld tubing and in recent years have usually'been made of cast high manganese steel, but such balls have proven very unsatisfactory on account of the fact that vsteel of this character is not machinable with an edged tool .A

and the balls had to be swung on a grinding lathe and ground with an emery or carborunduin wheel to remove the lumps and bring them downto .the correct size. This operation not only removes the original .skin on the casting, but causes scoringy or scratches around the surface of fthe ball where the outer skin had been removed, making a rough surface which gathers up metal, slag and scale from the inside of the pipe when being welded, and soon makes a lump which it is difficult to remove without grinding again, and consequently the ball has to be thrown away. Furthermore, owing to the low high manganese steel and high expansion and contraction, many of the balls crack and are rendered useless from this cause before being worn out.

In fact, the use of the cast high manganese steel ball ground to size has proved so unsatisfactory that many of the tube companies are looking about for something and are even considering going back to the old cast iron ball as used some 10 years ago extensively and tosome extent still.

I propose to make pipe-balls of forged metal and prefer to use high manganese and Carbon-steel, but, as the forging like the casting is not machinable with an edged tool, I propose to swage the forged high manganese steel b `ll cold after the forging has been heat treated. Forged manganese, when heat treated, has a strength and when cold swaged or drawn will have a still higher tensile, which is very much higher than the tensile strength of cylindricalbore Bwto 'receive physical strength of castl very high tensileserial No. 503,608. p

cast lmanganese' steel, and I consequently overcometheyl breakage to a greaty extent, and by cold sw'aging after it is'hot forged AI maintain' the original skin and canget pipel bal-ls without scratches, tool= marks, pits orknots to collect. metal from the inside of. thepipe which adheres to and spoils theballf fr* g l f 4Inj thefaccompanying drawing I have illustr'ujed,av simpley forni'of apparatus for carrying. out nay improved method, in which Fig; l 'is' a sectional elevationA of suchjap# paratus; Fig. 2s a cross section'on the line inthe.roughyand'flfig. 4 is a view of the piper iballaft'er having been treated by,l my improve@m3661666. i

In thefdrawing', the numeral 2 "designates 'siiitable' frame or `casting ,whichfhas the the hollow shaft 4. Thepbore. lisfafrr'anged i forth.l

may be ,driven bya suitable belt 6.

8 in quick succession and a percussive actionis imparted 1n the dies.

to the pipe-ball contained with- A cap-plate 15 is secured to the yend of the shaft 4 to retain the dies in poand the ring-plate 16 is secured to' sition, the casting 2. A chute 17 may be arranged in suitable vposition dies so that the pipe-balls fed to such chute will 'slide down the same and enter thedies bythe action of gravity, or fed in by suitable mechanical mechanism.

-In practicing my invention, I first take Aa suitable sized bar of high manganese steel,

form it in a suitable upsetting or forging machine to shape, and punch it to form the central hole. lIn this. manner I make up the blank approximating the size desired. n The blankwith the hole formed in it is, then heat treated, as all high manganese y i l I at aslightinclr" nation for 4'fthe'V purposes hereinafter'` l"set "ipulley is'mountedon the shaft i S0 The casting2flfh'as the'` cylindrical recess p as at 14 and as the hollow A these rounded .portions 14 with referencevto theand high Icarbon-steel is brittle before heat treatment. This heat treatment consists in heating the blank up to a temperature of over 1700o F. and then rapidly cooling the same by quenching. The steel which was brittle before this treatment is now as duc` tile as soft carbon steel or wrought iron, while its tensile strength yis greatly increased. It is so hard, however, that it is not machin-able with an edged tool, and in order to linish it and give a smooth surface as Well as bring i't to the proper gauge I subject the ball, while cold, to a swaging action.

This is done in the apparatus illustrated, and lthe pipe-ball, being substantially in the shape of a projectile with a conical end, is readily guided into the dies `and the exterior or anvil portion of the pipe-ball in the rear otfthe conical portion is subjected to the action of the dies.

The shaft 4 is rotated at a high rate of speed and a blow is administered to the pipe ball each time it comes in Contact with one of the rollers 8. As a. consequence the blows are, administered in quick succession to the pipe ball in its passage through the dies, and all irregularities or eXcrescences are removed by this hammering action, while at ythe same ltime the original skin is preserved and a hard, smooth, compact surface is given to the ball, which is at the same time tru'ed up to accurate size and dimensions. The percussive action 'or blows hard# en the steel for a considerable distance under the skin, which gives a smooth surface and true cylindrical form, while at the same time the surface of the ball is also hardened and toughened.

The idea of cold swaging the forged manganese ball is not only to retain the original smooth surface after heat treatment, but also to do away with the grinding which is undesirable for various reasons named above, and it also compacts or hardens the surface for some distance in on the forging, giving it a higher tensile strength, smoother finish, and greater abrasive resistance, and at the same time reduces the bally to a. more perfect circular shape when cold, and as all the balls are gauged or measured cold, 'this is also very desirable.

l. The method of forming pipe-balls con sisting in forging a blank to approximately the size desired, and then swaging the blank gold to form the finished pipe-ball.

2. The method of forming pipe balls consisting in forging a blank from. a piece of high manganese steel lapproximating the size desired, heat treating the blank, and Vthen swaging the blank cold.

ln testimony whereof I the said LLEWEL- LYN V7. JONES have hereunto set my hand.

LLEWELLYN YV. JONES. iVi'tnesses FLETCHER W. S'riLns, CHARLES S. EDMUNDS. 

